WOW! This thread is like totally nasty as Hell...You'd think it was about the Groove approved gear or something... Anyway, i bought one of these DJX 'boards & whats the big deal-- why do so many people ahte it? For 300 clams it is the sh**... Damn, I WISH I had started on this thing 10 or more years ago but of course technology was way behind my own crazy goals back then. This board is an excellent value no matter how much slaggin' you want to do. 16 channel multi-timbral midi supprot with 32 voices of polyphony with a kickin' arppegiater & some decent voices plus some nice onboard FX!!! If its a toy then I'm gonna go raid the toys ofr tots box at x-mas...Throw in a lo-fi sampler & a 6 track scratch sequencer to boot. A filter & ribbon controller are nice features as well. Decent full sized keys & a solid construction, too. Man, this board is unbeatable (new) for the price. I prdeict that there will be plenty of budding cyber-prodigies who get there start with one of these either as a stand alone workstation or hooked to their PCs... Sure, the sequencer isnt the best & the sampling memory is tiny, but for some kid who doesnt have a ton of money this is one serious option that cannot be overlooked... Id definitely choose this over the MC-303, as well, having played with before( my friends...) And, hey-- Im not some synth newbie-- I OWN 7 synths plus my PChas a ton of softsynths... I just dont like to see a quality piece of gear that is very fairly priced be all criticized like this... You wanna call me names-- I dont even F****** care buddy... Sure, there are alot of better boards (& real 'bona-fide' synths) out there with some fancy sticker prices too, Imight add. But for 300 bucks, this gives a kid (or a baby boomer/old codger/inmate/looney/freakazoid...etc...) a chance to lay down some frakin' tarx instead of just bummin' about how to afford a new Pentium 3 based set-up or a K2500 or whatever. Its not what you have its how you use it & this thing has plenty of quality features that make it a good buy for a beginner or an experienceduser. Why all the hostilty about it? Its nota synth anyway,so why judge it against more powerful 'boards that cost 2 or 3 or 4 times as much? That is not fair & I know all of you are way more intelligent than that. So, this board is a 300 'starter workstation' & it is just fine as that IMHO. Plus, I'm sure Yamaha is gonna revamp it soon anyway & maybe the smaple memory will be increased/etc... so, lets all put our claws away & go back to our $10,000+ studios in peace now. And some wiseacre can post a really nasty follow-up tothis message& we can all have a good laugh, huh? I'vespent over $15,000 on my Private Home Studio (over the years--not in one mad spree at Musician's Friend, mind you!), but I still say this DJX board is a quality 'budget'keyboard that is unlike any other piece o' spit PRS or Casiotone board so why put it down so much? Go ahead, attack me if you like but the fact remains that This board has some nice sounds (styles & patterns even are pretty good...) & features that elavate it way beyond the cheesey crapola 'drugstore/circuitcity' type portables we have all encountered over the years... So kill me if you disagree. Sure, I'd take a new XP-80 or maxed out Trinity/etc if I had my choice. But other than buying a used Atari or 4-track deck--I cant think of a better entry machine than this unit to get started when money is a concern & you still want some quality sounds... OK, I said my piece--go ahead & blast me now, About how I suck & everything. Dont care what you think, I am a total iconoclast & I will not stand by & let you slag a nice piece of (reasonably priced) gear like this even it means I getted slagged in the process. Synths & other gear are sacred in my opinion, so sue me--I've got friggin' wires for veins...(actually Ilike a good joke so you can slag away--better you should put me down than a cool piece of Hi-Tech gear, although I am pretty darn Hi-Tech in my own way too...) Later Hostile Ones... Gotta get back to my spooky studio now...

Rating: 3 out of 5
posted Tuesday-Feb-23-1999 at 22:26

FABREECE'
a hobbyist user
from HELL!!!
writes:

I ALREADY HAVE A DRUM AND BASS GUITAR MACHINE, AND I USE MY DJX TO DO ALL OTHER PHRASES. I HATE USING COMPUTERS TO MAKE MUSIC, ARE THERE ANY HARDWARE SEQUENCERS THAT I CAN USE INSTEAD OF CAKEWALK (ETC.)? I ONLY NEED SOMETHING THAT CAN SEND START, STOP, AND CONTINUE TO MY DRUM MACHINE AND HANDLE THE DJX PHRASES(16 TRACKS IS MORE THAN ENOUGH!! I ONLY NEED ABOUT 6 AT MOST!!). I AM VERY BROKE, SO IF THERE ANY OLD OR CHEAP HARDWARE SEQUENCER THAT MIGHT SUPPORT THIS? IT CAN BE 20 YEARS OLD, AS LONG AS IT WORKS!! THANX,

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Tuesday-Feb-23-1999 at 20:41

Ten29
a professional user
from Phoenix, USA
writes:

I thought the DJX was total shite at first, sort of a cheaper answer to Rolands groove crap. (Although without ROLAND we wouldn't have had house, trance, rave, etc. to bein with) But after playing with it, I think it's not only cheap, and cute, but actually usable. It really has a lot of features for the price. Even the list price is reasonable-and who the hell has ever paid list. lo-fi sampling, Ribb-controller, decent action, knobs, scratch sequencer, gloriously tacky GM voices, decent loops, and its a PSR!! P.S. I've been making electronic music for ten years and guess how old i was when I started - 14. So anyone who "disses" the younger guys - Screw Off. I once met a 13yr old who was using a MOOG Mg-1 to trigger samples from an old school akai sampler, and he rocked! He knew more about groove at 13 than "Adrian" the runaway "euro-guy" probably ever will. actually....when it comes to techno & dance.....we would all still be hitting the auto-tune button on our pre-midi analogs trying to get the sync to stick, if it weren't for the Japanese (i.e. Roland/Yamaha)

Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Monday-Feb-22-1999 at 07:18

Cleatus (again)
from United States
writes:

Damn, you guys! Seems like everyone wants their review to be the "end all" final statement for the collective DJX reviews. For the love of Satan, calm down! Anyway, I'm not going to be complaining about how the $6000 setup MIDI heads keep complaining about how bad this thing sux, that's their problem if they hate it. So I finally got one of these...I must say, this thing is nice. When I commented earlier about how the Reso didn't do shit for the sound, let me correct myself. When I brought this thing home, I made just about every tone I'd been dreaming of. In fact, I did get that Reso thing to work. A cool setup: Voice #43, "Fish 303", with "Hard Distortion" DSP effect on (BTW: these effects are swell...), and I set the Assign knob to "Decay". With the arpeggiator on, this does not sound too much unlike a sqeualing nasty 303. Just my opinion. Also pad sounds are very nice. The piano sounds definitely blow, this thing was not made for them. General MIDI voices are the same as another PSR unit that my brother owns, nothing astonishing. The sampler is kind of a cool feature, my only complaints about it being 1.) too low of a sampling rate 2.) not enough banks and 3.) can't set the BPM to match the sample. But hey, for $320, what the hell else can you want? The 6-track sequencer isn't too shabby, only I wish that it could loop instead of do just "songs". The ribbon controller is awesome, I usually use it for Turntable, Pan, Mod, or Arpeggiator Speed. The DSP effects I mentioned before are great. You can't adjust the speed or depth or anything like that of them, but they sound really nice. Distortion is especially useful, particularly for beefing up drumlines. My favorite thing to do with this thing is to turn the arpeggiator on and screw with the filter stuff. Fun shit. Oh yeah the part control is what separates the rhythm section from the shitty keyboards in this price range's rhythms, you can take the bass drum, snare, etc. out or add filter and effects to them. Well that's about all I've figured out so far, I only got it on Thursday and it's Sunday night. I've practiced with my band with this thing. Vocalist loves it, he's absolutely obsessed with the pad sounds, and my guitarist hates synthesizers but loves the drum beats and sampler. I put a groove off an old record onto the sampler and the one from "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana on it at the same time, had some fun with that. That's really what this is good for, both doing samples + hip hop type groove stuff and also to make squeaky fun with the arpeggiator and filters. Lots and lots of fun. This unit can really stand alone as compared to most stuff, though I wouldn't recommend (I use a 606, turntable, etc. with it). Generally an all-purpose unit, overall good quality, design, etc. It's OK that they cut the few corners they did, because the bottom line is bang for the buck. Swallow your pride and buy this gorgeous shark-blue (as opposed to mundane black) unit. I will post again if I find something else cool.

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Monday-Feb-22-1999 at 00:29

jake enk
a hobbyist user
from the united states
writes:

jesus... never before have i seen enthusiasm in a keyboard result in such aggressive eruptions between "music-making classes". you people are idiotic - find something else to bicker about. the DJX is a good little tool - nothing huge and amazing, just a good tool for some types of music. There seem to be DJX-leagues forming, or something. just more signs of the degrading society of modern youth. idiocy.